The present invention relates to a visual information carrier in the form of a flexible transparent synthetic polymer sheet which is free from white fracture and has a structured surface on which the structured surface zones represent colored, visually perceivable information.
Flexible visual information carriers comprising embossed sheets of polymeric materials are known in which the embossed zones differ in color from the background and represent visually perceivable information. This known visual information carrier in the form of a sheet is constructed of two layers and is therefore expensive to manufacture.
The information carrier comprises a translucent, colorless, undyed carrier sheet, for example of 200 .mu.m thickness, with latent white fracture and composed of unplasticized polyvinyl chloride. White fracture occurs in the sheet when it is folded or embossed at room temperature, the sheet becoming irreversibly opaque in the zone of the folding or embossing.
On one surface of the carrier sheet, there is an elastic, opaque, colored lacquer coating having a thickness of, for example, 5 to 20 .mu.m. The colored opaque lacquer coating on one surface of the translucent colorless carrier sheet forms the back of the information carrier.
On the surface of the carrier sheet of the information carrier which faces away from the lacquer layer and which forms the viewing side of the information carrier, projections protrude from the laminate comprising the carrier sheet and the lacquer layer. The projections are formed by embossing the laminate sheet at room temperature. Due to white fracture, the projections are opaquely white. The white projections stand out as visually perceivable information from the unembossed zone of the laminate comprising the carrier sheet and the lacquer layer.
Due to the colored opaque lacquer coating on the back of the carrier sheet, the entire information carrier is opaque. The known information carriers also have the further disadvantage that the information is formed only by white embossing.